


in choppy waters

by xylodemon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-26
Updated: 2013-01-26
Packaged: 2017-11-26 22:56:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/655293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylodemon/pseuds/xylodemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago, deep water had claimed the lives of his parents as he watched. Now it had robbed him of Davos as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	in choppy waters

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the [newly released photo of Stannis](http://24.media.tumblr.com/933536e1a4bd4d72761612990a902bd3/tumblr_mh77067gZR1r9h4heo1_500.jpg); I'm convinced he looks sad because he misses Davos.

The sea was louder at Dragonstone than what Stannis remembered from Storm's End, for all that the currents were said to be calmer. Waves shattered against the craggy cliffs below the keep with a roar like cracking thunder, and Stannis could feel their weight in the marrow of his bones, taste their hunger behind his teeth. It would rain later, fiercely; thick clouds pushed in from Essos with every shift and twist of the wind, threatening a storm that would churn the Narrow Sea into white froth.

Years ago, deep water had claimed the lives of his parents as he watched. Now it had robbed him of Davos as well. 

"And?"

Melisandre inclined her head, her hair flashing over her shoulder like copper. She burned brightly against the stony stretch of sky outside his solar. "I have looked into the fires, Your Grace, but I did not find Ser Davos."

"He is dead, then."

"Dead, or somewhere beyond the reach of my sight."

"You once told me your red god sees everything."

"R'hllor sees all there is to be seen, but he does not always share the whole of his knowledge." She approached him, her slippers making soft patters on the flagstones, pausing when he narrowed his eyes. "Nor does he suffer men who do not believe. Ser Davos clings to his seven idols like limpets on the hull of a ship."

"Do not speak to me of ships," Stannis said. 

She turned back toward the window, the ruby at her throat glinting in the thinning sunlight, and Stannis looked away from it, anger flaring under his skin like a hot knife between the ribs. His hands seemed unfamiliar where they rested on his knees, sunbrowned from weeks on the march and rough with salt air and age; he thought of Davos' hands, and the black gloves he'd worn to hide the scars on his knuckles, the bones he'd kept around his neck, held and carried like an eighth god.

"I will not find another man I could trust as I trusted Davos."

"You are the Lord of Light," she said, the sleeves of her dress dancing into the wind. "You should put your trust in R'hllor, Your Grace, not in men."

His chair sighed as he stretched his legs. "I am a king, Lady Melisandre." He'd wasted no thoughts on any gods since watching his parents drown within a league of safe anchorage; he wouldn't do it now, when he could still see writhing green flames, smell the acrid stench of charred flesh. "I am a king denied the right of my throne, and I will need men to win it from the Lannisters. Men like Ser Davos, and the sons he lost at Blackwater."

A gull wheeled across the sky, wings flapping as it shrieked at the clouds.

"Tell Axell Florent to take a hard look at the ledgers," Stannis said, sparing her half a frown. "Marya Seaworth will be cared for, however much I cannot afford it."


End file.
